Question

I have the following xml file:

<ArrayOfX xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <X>
    <Name>Name1</Name>
    <ArrayOfY>
      <Y>
        <Member1>1</Member1>
      </Y>
      ...
    </ArrayOfY>
  </X>
  ...
</ArrayOfX>

public class X {
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public List<Y> Y { get; set; }
}

public class Y {
    public String Member1 { get; set; }
}

But if i try to deserialize with XmlSerializer, Name contains the correct value but the Y list is empty. Any idea?

XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer( typeof( List<X> ) );
return (List<X>)serializer.Deserialize(reader);

Answer 1

Try this:

public class X {
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [XmlArray(ElementName = "ArrayOfY")]
    public List<Y> Y { get; set; }
}

With you class definition, if you try to serialize of a List<X>, the output would looks like:

<ArrayOfX xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <X>
    <Name>Name1</Name>
    <Y> <!-- Not ArrayOfY -->
      <Y>
        <Member1>1</Member1>
      </Y>
      ...
    </Y>
  </X>
  ...
</ArrayOfX>

Your provided xml file is not a valid format to the XmlSerializer(typeof(List<X>)). It’s expecting <Y> instead of <ArrayOfY> for the List<Y> member of X.

The attribute I added would instruct the serializer to look for an element with name ArrayOfY instead.